US healthcare bill under attack

Soon after the 112th Congress ­convenes tomorrow, Republicans in the House plan to make good on a campaign promise that helped vault many new members to victory: voting to repeal President
Barack Obama
’s healthcare overhaul.

The vote, which Republican leaders pledged would occur before the President’s State of the Union address later this month, is intended to appeal to the Tea Party-influenced factions of the House GOP (Republican Party) base and to emphasise the muscle of the new party in power.

Healthcare is only one item on an aggressive agenda of Republicans eager to distinguish themselves quickly from the House that was run by Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
. Many seem to have latched onto Undo It, the hit by country singer Carrie Underwood, as the refrain for their planned attack against legislation that grew out of the 111th Congress, when the Democrats were at the helm in both ­chambers.

The healthcare law, entitlement programs, new limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from oil refineries and power plants, and other legislation that Republicans say can’t be justified by a strict interpretation of the constitution, are all in the crosshairs.

While Mr Obama and Republicans were able to work together during last month’s lame duck session to pass a tax package and a variety of last-minute legislation, such bipartisan consensus seems unlikely at the ­outset of the new House session.

Republican John Boehner of Ohio, who is in line to succeed Ms Pelosi, said he would lead efforts to revive the private sector by reducing the size of government – cutting federal regulation, taxes and spending, including the budget of Congress itself.

A flat-out repeal of the healthcare law would face a steep hurdle in the Senate, where Democrats still cling to a diminished majority, and would most certainly be vetoed by Mr Obama. But Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the House action would not be merely symbolic. “If we pass this bill with a sizable vote, and I think that we will, it will put enormous pressure on the Senate to do perhaps the same thing," Mr Upton said. “But then, after that, we’re going to go after this bill piece by piece."

For their part, Democrats and the Obama administration, who largely lost the healthcare message war, see the renewed debate as a chance to show that the law will be a boon to millions of Americans and hope to turn “Obamacare" from a pejorative into a tag for one of the President’s proudest achievements.